Page 716 - women-in-love

‘What—that he’s dead?’ she said.
His eyes just met hers. He did not answer.
‘You’ve got me,’ she said.
He smiled and kissed her.
‘If I die,’ he said, ‘you’ll know I haven’t left you.’
‘And me?’ she cried.
‘And you won’t have left me,’ he said. ‘We shan’t have any
need to despair, in death.’
She took hold of his hand.
‘But need you despair over Gerald?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he answered.
They went away. Gerald was taken to England, to be bur-
ied. Birkin and Ursula accompanied the body, along with
one of Gerald’s brothers. It was the Crich brothers and sis-
ters who insisted on the burial in England. Birkin wanted to
leave the dead man in the Alps, near the snow. But the fam-
ily was strident, loudly insistent.
Gudrun went to Dresden. She wrote no particulars of
herself. Ursula stayed at the Mill with Birkin for a week or
two. They were both very quiet.
‘Did you need Gerald?’ she asked one evening.
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Aren’t I enough for you?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You are enough for me, as far as a woman
is concerned. You are all women to me. But I wanted a man
friend, as eternal as you and I are eternal.’
‘Why aren’t I enough?’ she said. ‘You are enough for me.
I don’t want anybody else but you. Why isn’t it the same
with you?’

716 Women in Love